Adaptations to changing times: Agency in context

(2007) - Ingrid Schoon

Journal: International Journal of Psychology
Link:: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1080/00207590600991252
DOI:: 10.1080/00207590600991252
Links::
Tags:: #paper #NCDS #LifeCourse #Transition #school-to-work #LabourMarket #BCS
Cite Key:: [@Schoon2007]

Abstract

B ritish society has changed greatly over the past half century. Increasing uncertainty about economic and social developments is becoming a distinctive feature of modern industrialized countries, affecting the life chances and opportunities of young people making the transition from dependent childhood into independent adulthood. Summarizing recent findings from data collected from about 30,000 individuals born 12 years apart, in 1958 and 1970 respectively, this paper examines the role of individual agency in shaping educational and occupational transitions as well as the assumption of family-related roles in times of social change. The data suggest that societal change and the associated increasing uncertainty does not impact on all individuals in the same way, and that there has been an increasing polarization between those who are able to benefit from the economic and social transformations and the ones who are excluded, largely because of their relatively disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances and lack of access to opportunities in education and employment. It is concluded that human agency processes cannot be studied in isolation from the sociohistorical context in which they are embedded.

Notes

“The data suggest that societal change and the associated increasing uncertainty does not impact on all individuals in the same way, and that there has been an increasing polarization between those who are able to benefit from the economic and social transformations and the ones who are excluded, largely because of their relatively disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances and lack of access to opportunities in education and employment.” (Schoon, 2007, p. 94)

“Adaptation is defined in terms of how individuals negotiate key life course transitions, such as the preparation for work, partnership, and family formation.” (Schoon, 2007, p. 95)

“The approach is guided by assumptions formulated within the life course theory of human development, with its emphasis on multiple interacting spheres of influence (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), as well as the temporal dimension and developmental effects of social change (Elder, 1974/1999, 1998). According to the life course approach, human development is shaped by a set of principles including lifelong development, individual agency, timing of events, linked lives, and embeddedness of development in a sociohistorical context (Elder, 1998).” (Schoon, 2007, p. 95)

“The 1958 cohort grew up during a period of extraordinary economic growth described by Hobsbawm (1995) as a ‘‘golden age,’’ while the 1970 cohort experienced their childhood during a time of increasing instability and insecurity, the so-called ‘‘crisis decades’’ (Hobsbawm, 1995).” (Schoon, 2007, p. 95)

“Young people from working-class backgrounds were less likely than their middle-class peers to remain in school beyond the minimum leaving age, to leave school with recognized qualifications, or to enter higher education.” (Schoon, 2007, p. 96)

“Comparing the educational transitions of children from poor backgrounds with those of their more privileged peers, it could be shown that academically able children from disadvantaged families were not achieving to the same level as their more privileged peer” (Schoon, 2007, p. 96)

“Transitions do not occur as discrete, clearly bounded occurrences, but are interlinked. Early life transitions can have developmental consequences, affecting subsequent transitions and setting in motion a chain of cumulative advantages and disadvantages, with implications for other life domains (Elder & Shanahan, in press)” (Schoon, 2007, p. 97)

“Women generally experience the transition into adult roles earlier than men (Ferri & Smith, 2003).” (Schoon, 2007, p. 97)

“Instead of following a prescribed path, young people have to navigate their way to adulthood, trying and choosing from the possible alternatives available to them. Young people actively try to shape and steer the movement from one state to another, yet are constrained by the economic, social, or cultural conditions they encounter (Evans, 2002; Heinz, 2002).” (Schoon, 2007, p. 98)

“Yet, individual aspirations, which can be understood as the expression of human agency, are always manifested in circumstances that are more or less constrained by available options” (Schoon, 2007, p. 98)

“Shanahan (2000) has developed a structure–agency perspective illustrating the dynamic interplay between person and context, focusing on how goal-directed behaviour of young people is experienced differently in different social settings, and introducing the notion of bounded agency to” (Schoon, 2007, p. 98)

“describe the influences of social origin, gender, and ethnicity on the range of options available to the individual.” (Schoon, 2007, p. 98)

“For UK teenagers born in 1958, the predominant pattern was to leave school at the minimum age and to move directly into a job” (Schoon, 2007, p. 98)

“The development and maintenance of aspirations is bound up with family circumstances and support, underlining the principle of linked lives—the embeddedness of individual choices with the lives of others” (Schoon, 2007, p. 99)